Thursday, June 23, 2011

In September 2008, Kevin Bacon set up at Showtime The Booths, a drama about Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth and his brother. Three years and a regime change at the pay cable network later, there is movement on the project. Oscar-nominated writer Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) has been tapped to write the potential series, which Bacon is still executive producing.

The Booths focuses on Confederate Booth and his brothers, Edwin and Junius Brutus Jr., and chronicles their years leading up to the April 14, 1865 assassination of Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. The brothers, sons of British Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Holmes, were all stage performers. In addition to The Booths, Bacon also is executive producing a single-camera comedy at HBO based on Clint McCown's book The Member-Guest with an eye to star. Nyswaner most recently co-wrote with Phil Dorling the feature comedy Predisposed, which is now filming with Jesse Eisenberg and Tracy Morgan starring and Dorling directing.